1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to brushes which incorporate dispensing means for controllably releasing some type of material for use with the brush, and more particularly pertains to a new and improved dispensing brush wherein a manually operated pneumatic means is provided for discharging treatment material.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the field of dispensing brushes, there has been developed a wide variety of different kinds of dispensing means for controllably releasing some type of material for use with the brush. Frequently, this type of brush is referred to as a "fountain brush" and the basic idea of utilizing dispensing brushes has been applied at least to toothbrushes, shaving brushes, hair brushes, powder brushes, and the like.
Quite often, the prior art dispensing brushes have relied upon a gravity feed as a means of dispensing a treatment material to the brush bristles. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 2,590,413, issued Mar. 25, 1952, to Jardines, there is disclosed a powder dispenser in combination with a brush wherein a reservoir is provided above the bristles which is adapted to retain a supply of powder or like material which may be controllably dispensed to the bristles. Essentially, a slidable plate is provided within the reservoir, such plate being manually positionable over a plurality of apertures provided between adjacent tufts of bristles, whereby depending upon the positioning of said plate, the apertures may be uncovered to permit a dispensing of the powder from the reservoir outwardly into contact with the bristles. As can be appreciated, this described construction permits a dispensing of powder only when the brush bristles are in a downwardly facing position, since no gravity feed of the powder can be expected if the apertures are facing upwardly. This, of course, is a serious disadvantage associated with gravity feed dispensing brushes, since their function and efficiency are seriously impaired in those situations where it is desirable to utilize the brushes but the bristles are oriented in some manner other than downwardly.
As opposed to gravity feed brushes, there have also been attempts to utilize pressure as a means of dispensing a material in a fountain brush. In U.S. Pat. No. 2,814,060, issued Nov. 16, 1957, to Aschenbach, there is disclosed a shoe dauber which consists essentially of a dispensing brush to which a tube of shoe paste or polish may be attached. In this respect, the tube may be manually collapsed whenever it is desirable to eject some polish into a dispensing chamber and outwardly through apertures positioned between tufts of the brush bristles. This form of pressurized dispensing requires that the material to be dispensed be contained in a collapsible, disposable tube which is attachable to the dispensing chamber of a brush. Once all of the material is dispensed, the collapsed tube may then be removed from the brush and discarded. This form of construction in a fountain brush presents many disadvantages. For example, means must be provided for supporting a dispensing tube, and further, whatever material is desired to be dispensed must first be commercially available in some form of a dispensing tube. In the case of treatment materials, such as liquids, powders, etc., it is highly probable that they will not be available in a collapsible tube, due to packaging and dispensing difficulties. Accordingly, the form of fountain brush disclosed in Aschenbach is really feasible only with respect to pastelike treatment materials.
Still other attempts have been made to overcome these above-discussed prior art disadvantages through the use of dispensing brushes having resilient housings which may be manually compressed to pressurize and thus forcibly expel a treatment material outwardly through apertures between brush bristles. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,597,097, issued Aug. 3, 1971, to Kellis, there is illustrated a dispensing brush having a substantially rigid brush plate and a resilient housing attached to the same. A slide bar is provided in the housing which extends across the brush plate, and by a squeezing of the housing, the slide bar moves to uncover an aperture provided in the brush plate, while at the same time the squeezing of the housing pressurizes a treatment material contained within the housing so as to force an ejectment of the same outwardly through the uncovered aperture. The operation of this device requires the use of the palm of a hand to force the movement of the slide bar, while at the same time all of the fingers must be employed to effectively pressurize the dispensing chamber. Since the entire housing of this brush is of a resilient construction, there occurs problems as to the amount of pressurization which can be obtained therein. Specifically, depending upon the positioning of the brush during a brushing operation, considerable difficulty may be experienced in effectively squeezing the entire resilient housing so as to sufficiently expel a desired amount of treatment material. In that the treatment material is in direct contact with the resilient housing, i.e., the resilient housing serves also as the container for the material, if the housing is too full of material, it may be virtually impossible to efficiently and effectively expel the material from the brush. Similarly, when only a small quantity of treatment material is contained within the housing, a considerable amount of squeezing may be required to effectively pressurize and thus expel the material.